Research Profile
The
quality of research in the Department has been confirmed in the 2008 national
Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). More than half of our research was rated
as 'internationally excellent' or higher, with a further 40 per cent rated as of
internationally recognised quality. Essex’s position as a leading university for
research in the humanities was confirmed with history, art history and
philosophy also achieving high rankings.
The Department provides an excellent environment for the pursuit of research
in the four areas of literature, drama, film, and creative writing. We
have around twenty staff who are engaged in full-time research as well as
providing support for the seventy or so
research students working on their PhD theses (many of whom developed their
research interests by taking an MA in the Department). The variety of
research being undertaken and supported can best be gauged from looking at our
staff profiles
at the list of research students and their topics,
and at two of our current collaborative projects, the
AHRC-funded American
Tropics: Towards a Literary Geography
and the ambitious collaboration with the
V&A called Memory Maps .
The Department has a strong international perspective, apparent both in the
background of its staff and in their research interests. Within the Department
four consolidated and interlocking research groups provide the research
framework, with several people belonging to more than one. Comparative
Literary Studies are central to the Department's identity, embodying the main
stream of departmental work in European literatures, cultures, and theatres.
Within this research group there are additional specialist concentrations on the
early modern period, on cultural history, and on drama and performance.
American Literatures and Cultures has its roots in the Department's
long-standing commitment to the study of the USA and Latin America, bolstered by
recent work on the Caribbean. World Cinema grows out of the transnational
and transcultural interests of those working in Film Studies. Finally, Creative
Writing and Translation marries the new research venture in creative writing
with the Department's established strengths in literary translation and
playwriting.
Particular areas of research include
- Comparative media and adaptation
- Contemporary French theatre
- Documentary and ethnographic film
- Icelandic literature
- Literary geography
- Literature of the US south
- Modernism and modernity
- Postcolonial literature
- Shakespeare and performance history
- Travel Writing
- World Cinema